Recently, I’ve been reminded of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Springfield paper well over a year ago. The letter was bemoaning that students had missed six days during the school year, due to snow, and then went on to argue for a longer school year, essentially going to school year round.
The letter was entitled “Students Need More Education, Not Less”.  I responded back then in another letter to the editor, so -full disclosure – some of these thoughts have been shared previously in another format.  But I’d like to recycle some of those thoughts into this blog, since the ideas there will piggyback onto other similar explorations that will appear in this space as we head into 2016.
We should tread very carefully and sensibly here, of course.  Who would ever argue that students need less education?  But let’s not miss the forest for the trees.  The bugaboo is making sure we focus clearly on the product we’re delivering in these rapidly changing times.  Only then can we move to discussing whether we want to deliver more or less of it in a given time span or a longer school year.
Actually, the author himself made this exact same point in his letter, perhaps without realizing it:  “Public education seems to be struggling to survive. Throwing more money at the problem won’t fix it until there is agreement on what’s needed”.
I couldn’t agree with this more.  So, let’s have a good, rational, public discussion, with all constituencies represented, about “what’s needed”.  More to the point, let’s join the discussion that’s already occurring, and, in the process, let’s listen to the teachers, who are on the front lines and who deal with promoting learning every day.
But let’s NOT jump straight to the assumption that more time in school (or any other ‘easy solution’) will fix the problem.  Going to school more won’t necessarily make one more educated . . . any more than going to church more will necessarily make one more spiritual.
I’ll say this carefully, but I’ve always thought the longer-school-year argument by itself was a lot like saying “my car is running rough, so I need to drive it more miles.”  Shouldn’t it be clear that “what’s needed” is not necessarily more quantity but more quality in what we do – whether  it’s church, school, career, or whatever?
Yes, let’s all pitch in and help educators as they try to make authentic learning easier to attain in the classroom. Let’s all help find ways to connect “the curriculum” to “the outside world” in ways that make sense to students, so they want to learn, and understand WHY they are learning.  And let’s support the classroom teachers, whose daily mission is to help achieve those very goals.
As always, these goals –especially today – are NOT easy ones, and they’re made more difficult by not realizing how legitimately complex they are, and how difficult they are to achieve and sustain.  So, let’s join and contribute to that discussion with open minds – it’s important! Let’s NOT get sidetracked with whether or not we’re doing the same old thing more or less often – it tends to miss the point.